


The Sacrifice

by chimneysmoke (recension)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 08:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recension/pseuds/chimneysmoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Harry/Hermione; 'i'll go with you' (and she does); even if i come back, even if i die/is there some idea to replace my life"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> For the _Welcome Home_ Harry Potter LJ ficathon.
> 
> Original prompt: "Harry/Hermione; 'i'll go with you' (and she does); even if i come back, even if i die/is there some idea to replace my life"

Harry says he'll go alone but she doesn't let him. She orders Ron to prepare for Nagini, to get as many Basilisk fangs as he can, and sneaks off towards the Forest.

Harry wants to go into this alone, so she respects his wish. She's ten paces behind him. Until the very last flash of light, until the very last minute of hope. She'll be behind him. 

_Harry is all that matters,_ she thinks. He's had the world on his shoulders for nearly his whole life and it's only getting worse, the burden. Within a few minutes he'll be dead, willingly sacrificed, unless she can think of something clever. Unless she can...

But her mind is blank. Blissfully blank for the first time in her whole life. She can't remember ever being this unable to think. She'd always been so good under pressure but now instead of running over every fact she knows about horcruxes and curses and fate it's a dull whisper of, _No, Harry, no. Please don't die._

Life has never been fair, but it's not fair especially now. No one deserves to live more than Harry.

She watches him through trees, hears him speak out into the dark, "I am about to die."

She clamps a hand down on her own mouth to keep from sobbing out. Something about his tone of voice, his bravery overwhelms her and it's taking all her strength not to shout at him. She collapses against a tree in early guilt. Will she ever recover from his death? Will anyone? 

She hears half of his conversation, with the Gods or with... her blood turns ice as she figures it out. Ghosts. "I didn't want you to die," Harry says, looking around to vacant spots in the trees. "Any of you. I'm sorry—" 

_I don't want you to die either!_ her mind shouts at him.

And then, his weak hope. "You'll stay with me?"

 _I will,_ she promises. _Until the end._

"Stay close to me," he says quietly into the dark, and Hermione follows him the best she could as he moves further into the forest. She watches him confront a band of Death Eaters. How far he's come, from cowering to proud. Willing to die. A true hero. In that moment she's sure she loves Harry in a way she'll never love anyone else no matter how she tries. Harry is effortless unceasing love. Forever love.

 _There are more important things than books and cleverness,_ she thinks sadly, _Friendship and bravery._ The qualities Harry's always had in spades. Things every Gryffindor should have in spades...

The idea clicks in her head out of nowhere and immediately she acts.

No time to think of consequences. No time to think of what this means or how this will all end. All she knows is it will buy Harry time enough to figure out another way, a way that ends in him _living_ and that's all that matters. 

It's the only card she has left to play. A sacrifice of pure love.

Voldemort raises his wand and she runs at a full sprint as he recoils his arm and prepares to spit the curse. She reaches Harry just in time, her arms wrapping around him in a fierce hug, pulling him to her chest as they both crouch down, her back to the wand as the green light surrounds them. The last earthly sensation she feels is Harry tucking against her in reflex, leaning into the embrace, before the world fades.


End file.
